OCL Call for Papers

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Although there has been a significant decline in recent years, 2,830 road users in Germany were still killed in traffic.  Most of the people who died were in the group of car drivers.1 In 2022, the USA had the highest number of road deaths worldwide with 42,795, followed by Mexico with 15,979.2 Experts know that in many cases, insufficient visual acuity is partly responsible for traffic accidents. Scientists in optometry and ophthalmology have therefore been dealing with the complex of "vision and road safety" for a long time. In this context, issue V of the publication series from 19623 of the German Optometric Society (DGO) should be mentioned, in which national and international experts discussed scientific findings on the following topics:

  • Night myopia
  • The importance of visual acuity for drivers
  • Depth perception of drivers
  • Bifocals and road traffic
  • Vision in road traffic at night
  • The visual field limitation of the driver
  • Cataract surgery and the rate of traffic accidents

An early publication by US scientists R. W. Reading and H. W. Hofstetter from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana on the “Effect of Monocular and Binocular Vision in Vehicle Driving Speeds” from 1968 should also be mentioned.4
The fact that the subject vision and driving is more relevant today than ever is shown not only by the currently controversial “European Driving Licence Directive”, but also by the enormous number of publications on this topic worldwide. Examples of this are the papers “Visual Functions, Seatbelt Usage, Speed, and Alcohol Consumption Standards for Driving and Their Impact on Road Traffic Accidents”5 and “Driving Difficulties and Preferences of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems by Older Drivers With Central Vision Loss”6 published in 2023.
The December 2025 issue of OCL will also discuss the topic of “Vision in road traffic”, and the OCL Editorial Board is therefore inviting national and international experts to submit interesting research papers, literature reviews or case studies on this topic. The deadline for manuscripts to be submitted is 1 June 2025. On the OCL website www.ocl-online.de you will find the relevant author guidelines for publication in the OCL in German and English.
The OCL Editorial Team is already looking forward to the submitted papers.

[1] Statista (2023). Anteil der getöteten bei Straßenverkehrsunfällen in Deutschland von 1950 bis 2023. https://de.statista.com, Referencing: 17 April 2024.

[2] Impey, B. (2024). Verkehrstote nach Ländern weltweit 2022. https://de.statista.com, Referencing: 17 April 2024.

[3] Deutsche Gesellschaft für Optometrie (DGO). (1962). Sehen und Verkehrssicherheit. Schriftenreihe der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Optometrie, Heft V, Buchdruckerei Paul Oehring, Berlin Charlottenburg 4.

[4] Reading, R. W., Hofstetter, H. W. (1968). Effect of Monocular and Binocular Vision in Vehicle Driving Speeds. Am. J. Optom. Arch. Am. Acad. Optom., 46, 954-959.

[5] Almatar, H., Alamri, S., Alduhayan, R., Alabdulkader, B., Albdah, B., Stalin, A., Alsomaie, B., Almazroa, A. (2023). Visual Functions, Seatbelt Usage, Speed, and Alcohol Consumption Standards for Driving and Their Impact on Road Traffic Accidents. Clin. Optom. (Auckl.), 15, 225-246.

[6] Xu, J., Hutton, A., Dougherty, B. E., Bowers, A. R. (2023). Driving Difficulties and Preferences of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems by Older Drivers With Central Vision Loss. Transl. Vis. Sci. Technol., 12, 1-13.